WHY I LIKE A 10’ FLY ROD Australian Fly Fishing Champion Jon Stagg offers his opinion.
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A 10 foot rod will give you a higher back cast, which can be useful in many places.
hen it comes to fly rods it is easy to become confused with what rod is most suitable for your style of fishing. The different models, weights, lengths, styles and combinations are endless. There are rods designed to suit almost any situation you may encounter on either lake or stream. As a competition angler I am always looking to use the best style of rod to suit the type of water and conditions I am fishing. When fishing a river, I could have up to 7 rods set up for nymph, dry fly, nymph under dry, streamer, spiders etc. I use rods from 8ft to
11ft in length and from 0 weight to 6 weights. Why?..... Because I can……you are allowed as many rods as you like set up on a river in a competition so I take advantage of this rule. There is a whole other story in explaining why I have each rod set up, but the main reason is it is impossible to have one rod successfully meet every situation you will encounter on a stream session. Sure, you could make do with one rod and still catch a good few fish but dependant on the water your performance would dramatically decrease if restricted to one rod
A 10 foot rod is all positives and no disadvantages in a boat.
When fishing lakes from a boat it is a different story, you may only fish with one rod set up in a boat at any one time in a competition. For this reason, I use one rod of 10 feet in length in either a 6 or 7 weight. Why a 10 foot rod? Well after nearly 30 years of fly-fishing and 20 years of serious competition I have come to the realisation that a 10 foot rod is by far the most versatile, efficient and effective fly rod for boat fishing that there is. By the way if I could have 7 rods made up in the boat I would, and they would all be 10 foot!!
Let’s have a look at the positives I first began my fly fishing using an 8’6” rod then progressed to using a 9 foot rod for quite some time. I remember receiving a 10 foot, 5 weight Thomas and Thomas rod for what I thought would be a good river rod for nymphing. This was very early days of the Czech nymph technique hitting the scene and even though this rod was ok for this style of fishing I soon came to realise how brilliant this rod was to fish with from a boat. Although it was a 5 weight it was fast action and acted more like a 6 weight, I soon found myself using this rod regularly when fishing from a boat. I loved to fish the morning wind lanes on Dee Lagoon or Lake Leake. When chasing these rainbows, it is critical to be able to throw a long fast line well in front of the feeding fish. Then if the fish changes direction, which it often does, you need to quickly pick up the line from the water and re-present your cast. The easier and faster you can accurately present your fly the more success you will have. A 10-foot rod is so much better for this style of fishing than a 9-foot rod. You will lift a much longer line from the water due to the extra length than any 9 foot rod and then you will have added power to allow you to aerialise and re-present your cast at distance much easier. With long delicate leaders that I use for wind lane fishing I find the 10-foot rod turns them over beautifully while still being accurate.
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Fishing News - Page 23
